ASML gets $975 million from Samsung

It seems every chipmaker is trying to put money into the Dutch equipment maker ASML.

While Intel and TSMC has dumped a pile of greenbacks on the company it seems that Samsung will spend $975 million and buy a three percent equity stake. ASML's co-investment program is intended to tie in customers and speed up the development of new technology that will eventually lead to much cheaper gadgets, such as smartphones and tablet computers, and cement its position as the market leader ahead of Nikon.

Samsung's cash is a lot less than the $4 billion to buy up to 15 percent of ASML. As customers, the three groups stand to benefit by speeding up the adoption of the next generation of chip manufacturing processes from ASML by as much as two years.The money will mean that ASML can research a new chip-making standard based on bigger wafers, as more chips can be produced if the diameter of the wafers is increased to 450 millimeters from 300 mm, leading to significant cost savings.

It can also look at an advanced chip-making technique known as extreme ultraviolet or EUV lithography.